Tuesday, June 21, 2011

'What’s not boring is making shit happen.' -Graham Taylor

Graham Taylor, killing it.

This weekend, Graham Taylor, the Global Head of WME, (also a brilliant, hilarious guy and a dear friend) gave the rockin' keynote speech at LAFF. He addressed the swift changes befalling the film industry and independent film, specifically, and called for the audience (and the industry) to rally. I've shared the link to his speech here - but in case you don't get that far, I thought I would share this quote:

"Apathy and Cynicism are not the parents of great art, great movies or great entrepreneurs. The day our passion and enthusiasm subsides will be the day of our undoing."

His speech resonated with me profoundly. In this business, naysayers abound. Before I ever sold my first pitch, I was told, "Pitches are really hard to sell." I hedged my bets. I had good producers and a star attached and I worked my butt off to make it perfect. One month later, I sold it. The same thing happened before I sold my second pitch and my first script.

Nothing like some early morning

cross-stitched kitten inspiration.

Full disclosure: somewhere in there, I did get apathetic. And cynical. SOOOO cynical. Anyone who's heard the story of how THE LAKE EFFECT came to be knows that somewhere in the fourth month of my pregnancy, I lost it. I quit writing, I quit the industry. I felt too powerless -- I couldn't imagine breaking another story, creating another character that would never see the light of the projector. And then I got an email from Jennifer... who was taking back control. We green-lit ourselves.

Jennifer Westin and I are now coming to a significant close on our journey with The Lake Effect. It is hard work toward the end and last week, we once again found ourselves in a post facility at 1 in the morning at the end of a 15 hour day, when I began fading. The next morning, Jennifer called to check in/apologize for the crazy late night (understanding that my child wakes at 6 AM no matter what time I roll in). And I told her that on any other night, I could be home with nothing going on, jealous that somewhere out there, some filmmaker was burning the midnight oil. Instead, all our hard work has culminated -- made us lucky enough to be facing the good nightmare of delivering our movie to a distributor. (PS: Thanks to that late night, we'll have deleted scenes and outtakes on the DVD. Weeee!!)

Again, I quote the great Graham Taylor, "What's not boring is making shit happen."

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About Me

Tara Miele is a screenwriter and director. Born in New York and now based in Los Angeles, Tara began her career working for the very talented Jodi Foster and sold her first screenplay at the age of 27. Her award winning short films have played festivals all over the world, including South by Southwest, Slamdance, and Newport Beach. THE LAKE EFFECT, an independent feature film about a man who must learn to be a father before he becomes a grandfather, is Tara's first feature film. The film was awarded the Spirit of Moondance at the Moondance Film Festival, Best Ensemble Acting and Best Screenplay at the Phoenix Film Festival and earned Tara a place on Raindance Film Festival's list of the Top Ten American Indie Directors to Watch.